


Dreams Like Houses

by cadenzamuse



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Collective Unconscious, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Dreamsharing, Ficlet, Jungian Psychology, M/M, Multi, References to Depression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-28
Updated: 2016-04-28
Packaged: 2019-09-30 20:09:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17230427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cadenzamuse/pseuds/cadenzamuse
Summary: “Dreams are like houses,” Jack’s therapist says.  “The frame comes from the collective unconscious, and the plumbing and electric may come from the co-dreamer, but the rest of it is thoughts and feelings your brain is sorting through.  Most of the dream is coming from you.”





	Dreams Like Houses

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Upon a Dream](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6694387) by [garden of succulents (staranise)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/staranise/pseuds/garden%20of%20succulents). 



Jack always feels disoriented, swimming up from dreams into sunlight, his shin numb from where his leg is hooked around Eric’s. He knows, Eric has told him, that when Eric is happy he dreams about romance: someone regarding him with soft eyes, drawing Eric towards them, kissing him. And Jack also knows from experience that the nights after he and Eric have been apart, Eric dreams about sex.

Eric is always kind about the dreams Jack stumbles into, sympathetic but unapologetic. Jack knows it’s not Eric’s fault, that its Jack’s own brain that overlays Kent on the faceless man that Eric’s brain is only sketching in brief. “Like a house,” Jack’s therapist always says. “The frame comes from the collective unconscious, and the plumbing or electric or whatever might come from someone you’re dreaming with, but all the rest of it is thoughts and feelings and memories your brain is sorting through. Most of the dream is coming from you.”

Jack wonders what it means that he’s still “sorting through” Kent almost ten years later.

Jack always feels a little extra anxious the morning after a big win, like his brain is trying to reassert itself after leaning hard into the team. Realistically, Jack knows it’s more likely payback from the couple of drinks he had with the team after, the alcohol compounding his fucked up brain chemistry. Last night Jack had done the math, decided it wasn’t worth fighting with his teammates to refuse. He wanted to celebrate, wanted to feel loose through the sore muscles and loud teammates and that first press of Eric against him after weeks away. Jack knows he always underestimates how broken he’s going to be in the morning, but Jack spends so much time trying to make decisions his future self won’t hate that it’s hard not to sabotage himself every once in a while to relieve the pressure.

But he still feels the remnants of the dream, Bitty pressing up into Parse’s kiss. The way it felt safe and syrup-slow only makes Jack more guilty-jealous now. He needs to go for a run and then take a shower, get hydrated, keep himself busy. Eric doesn’t deserve Jack’s shitty brain, not after a two week road trip and a two-point night. Jack carefully reclaims his foot.


End file.
